eSports in Pakistan

Over the past decade competitive gaming has rapidly emerged across screens around the world and in recent years is starting to develop in Pakistan. The phenomenon rise of competitive gaming began in Pakistan when a young Pakistani, Sumail Hassan, won $1.2 Million USD Dollars in an International Dota Championship in 2015. This inspired other member of the youth gaming community to start hosting local gaming tournaments and form communities that were based around competitive gaming. Many businesses have grasped the rising trend as an investment opportunities such as PTCL with their launch of PGL. PGL or Pakistan Gaming Lounge is an online site where though, currently only PC gamers can compete in gaming tournaments. The site also provides servers which allows PC gamers to join and play in noncompetitive matches as practice. This has laid the groundwork for the future of eSports in Pakistan.

Whilst around the world in many major countries eSport leagues have been established Pakistan struggles to establish a base. Over the past few years Pakistan has had many major competitive gaming tournaments held which were sponsored by major companies. One major tournament was a live event held by PTCL in Centaurus mall Islamabad. It was a Call of Duty 4 tournament with a prize money of 10,000 rupees back in 2015. Another major tournament held was a CS-GO tournament in Lahore with a prize of 30,000 rupees being sponsored by ASUS Pakistan and Wild Ogre Studios back in 2016. These tournaments and their success have displayed there is a future for eSports in Pakistan. An existing base of gamers already exist whom are willing to compete in competitive gaming but there is yet to be an established base for these gamers to flourish their talents.